Lexington Scrabble® Club 1998-1999 Season

This reports on the season which ran from September, 1998 through
August, 1999.

The Lexington, Massachusetts Scrabble Club #108 has been running
continuously since it was started by Edie Berman and Muriel Sands in
January, 1980. We meet nearly every Thursday night of the year in a
comfy basement meeting room of the First Parish Church, which is
situated on Lexington Green behind the Lexington Minuteman Statue.
Judy Horn has been directing this club for about 16 years. Ellen
Miller serves as associate director. Mike Wolfberg joined the club
within its first month of existence, and he took on the role of club
statistician within the first year. The club has operated with its
own rating system, designed primarily by Alan Frank, since early 1981.
Ratings are based on the percentage of points each of the players
scores in each game. The club web site includes a detailed description
of this system.

These are the top 16 active players in decreasing club average rating:

In this past season, the highest game score was 611 by Merrill
Kaitz. The only other over-600 game was a 605 by Mike Wolfberg.
The club record is 709 by Mike Wolfberg on 4-Nov-82.

The highest losing score for the season was John Van Pelt's 468 on
1-Jul-99; the winner of that game was Mark Fidler, with a 517.
The club record is 480 by Merrill Kaitz, losing to Mike Wolfberg's
493 on 12-Jan-89.

The highest tied score for the season was a 462 by Merrill Kaitz
and Richard Buck. We believe this is a club record.

In the unusually long club session held during the day on
26-Dec-98, Joel Horn won ten games and was undefeated.

On 20-May-99, Judy Horn created SCARIFYING, a 10-letter word as
a bingo by surrounding RIF with letters A,G,I,N,S, and 2 blanks.
This is not likely to be a club record, but it's the longest play
we have noted in our records.

The weekly news lists the top ten active players based on ratings.
Normally this includes exactly ten players. When there are ties,
such as for first place, we consider both of those players to be
first, and there is no second place, since it is skipped. A strange
case occurred for the news for 24-Jun-99 in that four players were
tied for tenth place and therefore 14 players were listed in the
top ten. We believe that to be a club record.